Role of Aerosols on Atmospheric Circulation in Regional Climate Experiments over Europe

Abstract

Aerosols can strongly influence atmospheric circulation, and categorizing it into circulation types (CTs) helps in understanding the relationship between atmospheric forcing and surface conditions. However, few studies have considered the impact of interactive aerosols on atmospheric dynamics from a climatic perspective. This contribution aims to assess whether simulations with interactive aerosols (online solving of aerosol–radiation interactions, ARI, and aerosol–radiation–cloud interactions, ARCI) significantly impact atmospheric dynamics over Europe during winter compared to conventional regional climate models with prescribed aerosols. For that, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been applied to reduce the dimensionality of the problem in order to cluster different weather patterns. Results showed significant differences in the two predominant patterns, characterized by a western zonal flow (CT1) and a low-pressure system centered in Italy (CT2). The ARI experiment revealed a substantial reduction of surface level pressure over central-eastern Europe for CT1, resulting in a southward shift of the flux direction, and an increase in pressure over Scandinavia for CT2. The ARCI experiment exhibited a similar, but weaker effect. Furthermore, the study demonstrated the impact of aerosols on the frequency of different CTs and on the concentration of black and white aerosols. The findings of this study emphasize the significant role of aerosols in the atmospheric system and the need for further research to reduce uncertainty in meteorological and climatic experiments, particularly in the context of mitigating climate change.